Had it with Hobbyking products..

[GaryJS]

Two items from my first hobbyking order have now exploded under normal use.. How bad is that?! And to top it all, it will cost me more to return the items than they are worth - Please.. Can anybody calm me down and recomend a replacement for my 4x6s Hobbyking charger?

This is my chat with the live tech support:

Ricky:
Thank you for contacting the HobbyKing Support Team. How may I help you?

You:
Hi - Two items from my first ever order from Hobbyking have now gone BANG! Agh! The PSU failed first and now the charger. I filled in the return form for the PSU the other day but decided not to return it due to the shipping cost but now two items have broken...
You:
I think it might be worth while..
You:
Is there ANY other option other than shipping back to China at great cost?
You:
Pretty poor that two items have gone bang!!!

Ricky:
May I have your order number please?

You:
The order number was xxxxxxxxxx
The return shipping cost to China would be £81 with Parcel force economy!

Ricky:
One moment please while I check your Order.

You:
Thanks.. The value of the items to be returned is £63

Ricky:
Thank you for your patience.
You are strongly advised to mail the returned item via the cheapest mailing method with tracking facilities.

You:
With tracking would be >£100
And the value is only around £63!!
Can they be returned to the german warehouse? Or will the shipping costs be refunded?

Ricky:
sorry for the inconvenience .According to our return and refund policy, all defective item has to be sent back to warranty department for inspection. Hence we send back to manufacturer and claim for replacement.
Ricky:
Please fill out RMA form in Warranty Support Page, and send the item back to the provided address after submitting your RMA form.

You:
But that would cost more than the product is worth
From the product page popup: Warranty
Other stores will force you to ship the product back to China in full retail packaging every time!
Hobbyking's warranty service is professional, fair and fast.

You:
So you don't have any option other than shipping the product back to China?

Ricky:
when you submit RMA form. you will find the available return address for warranty. if item can not be test in the oversea warehouse the rma form will not show it. but some customers still sent them back to the oversea warehouse , it will need to send back to China warranty for test. in that case the warranty will cause long delay
Please be informed that once the item has been returned and confirmed to be faulty, we will send you a replacement at no cost.

You:
OK.. So I can send it back to the DE warehouse but it might cause a delay?
I can live with that...
But it doesn't show the address on the return page and it says only one item per RMA - I have two items and it has generated the same RMA code for both - is that OK?

Ricky:
yes, one item one rma
please fill and submit the rma then send back to the system available address

You
But the address it shows is in China.. Didn't you suggest I could return it to Germany if I was willing to put up with a delay?

Ricky:
then the item need to return to the china warranty department for inspect
sorry for the inconvenience

You:
SO what you are saying is that it will cost me more than the product is worth to return and there is no option despite the product exploding? So I've paid £63 + shipping and import tax for a product that explodes and then I have no sensible way of returning it? Great.. That's fantastic... I'll make sure I let people know not to buy these products if that's the way it goes...

Ricky:
According to our return and refund policy, all defective item has to be sent back to warranty department for inspection. Hence we send back to manufacturer and claim for replacement. Please be informed that once the item has been returned and confirmed to be faulty, we will send you a replacement at no cost.

You:
But it will cost me more than the items are worth to return..
Even though the items are worth quite a lot!

Ricky:
sorry for the inconvenience

You:
Not just inconvenience though is it.. I'm seriously out of pocket because of dangerously defective products supplied by you guys...

 

[Hillhater]

Sounds like you have not been given all the facts ..
Do the RMA applications.
you may well find they give you a "local" return address....(they did for me in Australia).
also, from my experience, they do not send you replacements, they simply credit your account with the product value ( if proven to be a warranty fail). So you will then have to re-order those products again as normal !
I suggest you read the product reviews and these forums before carefully choosing your replacements.
That 4x6s HK charger has been mentioned several times for its unreliability.
Good luck finding a supplier with similar product value or better warranty /customer service !
.. you may want to look at .."Leaders Hobby" . :wink:
https://www.leaderhobby.com/list.asp?type=categories&categories=30

 

[Sunder]

A lot of people have had issues with Hobby King and there have been a few other suggestions like hobby partz and leader hobby.

For me though, its hard to argue with a local (same state) warehouse since Aust Post wont send more than 1 lipo battery per package, and at half to a third of the cost of retail stores here, I'm prepared to lose half my goods for the lower price.

it is sad to approach buying in that way, but remember that Hobby King is also a customizing distributor - chances are if you found another place that is cheap, they're selling re branded hobby king products.

 

[AussieJester]

Lost count the number of those chargers I have read to be deductive STOP BUYING THEM people!!.. Get a hyperion charger, good reliable chargers.

KiM

 

[GaryJS]

 

[GaryJS]

Cheers guys..

So annoying..

They only show the return address that can accept the particular item apparently and my items can only be returned to China according to the support dept... Other items can be returned to the local warehouse but only if the return address is shown on the RMA page.

 

[GaryJS]

I might have to look into the Hyperion charger and see if I could charge my 12s2p setup without having to swap batteries to charge them all...

 

[snowranger]

Your credit card agreement may be your friend here.

 

[neptronix]

Everyone already knows that 90% of the cheap hobbyking chargers are junk, why did you order one thinking any different? you saw the reviews, didn't you?
If you looked for reviews of the icharger, hyperion, etc chargers you'd see what is solid and what is not.

They intentionally sell things *juuuust* cheap enough that returning them is not worth the $. That's how these companies work dude.... sorry you had to discover it the hard way.

The only thing worth buying there is connectors, lipos, icharger stuff, and maybe a small selection of motors... everything else.. no-name junk with a hobbyking/turnigy/hextronik label slapped on it with often exaggerated specs.

 

[knoxie]

yes sadly returning anything to them in HK is always going to be a none starter, I only ever get things I can not reasonably get in the UK or things that are so cheap it doesnt matter if they break, i also order more than 1 of what I want as they are so cheap, lipo buzzers for instance.

I got my charger in the UK for this reason, may have cost 40 quid more than getting it from the PRC but no issues sending it back under warranty, luckily its been bullet proof, I charge 4 packs on it every day and never had a single problem with it, I can highly recommend this unit having used it for 18 months now without a problem, I got mine from a model shop in leeds for 100 quid delivered.

Here it is.

http://www.modelshopleeds.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=52_354&products_id=7033

 

[MadRhino]

+1 for the I-charger, I have 2 of them 208 B that are very precise and reliable.
Don't power it with HK power suplies, best is to use Meanwell 24v

Before buying anything at HK, read the reviews.
Consider anything broken a loss, not worth bothering with their garantee.

 

[GaryJS]

knoxie - you must be fairly close to me It looks a bit like the HK charger that just blew up but at least it's a local supplier! Jeese... this lipo business is expensive :S

 

[AussieJester]

I might have to look into the Hyperion charger and see if I could charge my 12s2p setup without having to swap batteries to charge them all...

I have 8 22v 5000mah packs I charge simultaniously
With a hyperion 1420 one plug charge and balance
Do a search for db25 that should find you a few helpful
Threads on how to setup bulk balance charging.

KiM

 

[GaryJS]

Or I could get a Hyperion for the same money... http://www.ecrater.co.uk/p/12147151/hp-eos-1420i-net3-charger

 

[sn0wchyld]

a bit pricier than the others but I'd still recommend the powerlab 8 or hx10. 8s max is a bit of a pita but otherwise its a brilliant charger (8s 40A charging!!). and their support is great too.

But yea, with hk, you basically need to go into it with the premise 'this has no warranty' - if something goes wrong try and get your money back but for the most part be prepared to loose it... the fact that they're anywhere between 1/4 and 1/15th the cost of buying similar or even the exact same stuff locally means its still worth it.

 

[GaryJS]

Yeah..

And I just noticed that Hyperion charger shipped from China - not likely to buy from there!

 

[knoxie]

Hi I am in North Oxfordshire mate so a quick step and a few charges from you buddy yes a lot of the chargers are very similar and the charging front end is very similar also, I find the 4 channel charger to be very useful, it can charge pretty much anything else too from little Nimh cells, lead, what ever you want, I like the versatility as I also use it for model cells too, I also use a very good power supply to feed it though this may be the issue with some of the charger failures, folks using 5 dollar PC PSUs and the like.

http://www.moonraker.eu/Amateur-Rad...-Supplies/ALINCO-DM-330MW-30-AMP-POWER-SUPPLY

 

[d8veh]

Looking at your photo, the capacitor has blown. I blew mine when I accidentally connected a pair of 6s packs in series, as the series connector is the same as the individual pack (Deans), so easy to do if you're not thinking. I went down to Maplins and got a replacement capacitor, soldered it in and everything was back to normal for about £1 - a lot cheaper than sending it back to China. If the capacitor's case has gone, I'm sure someone here can give you its value if you ask.

 

[Jason27]

I learned my lesson. I will not buy any more products from directly from china.

 

[amberwolf]

File comment: View of the internals of the charger...

I'd guess they installed the capacitor backwards; they don't usually explode violently like that for most other reasons.

It's also possible that it wasnt' rated for the voltage applied across it, either from the battery connected to the charger, or from the PSU running the charger, depending on where the cap is in the circuit.

Might be possible to simply replace the cap and have it work again, but I would highly recommend verifying polarity of all other caps, and replacing any that were installed wrong, before using it again.

 

[zombiess]

It's not wise to be a cheap ass when it comes to LiPo chargers. Buy a good brand used one if you have to, but stay away from the HK crap. The Hyperions and Ichargers are excellent. I myself need to start looking into bulk charging because I'm now parallel charging a 6S 75AH pack with an 11AH setting on my icharger 206B. While it works great, I get sore fingers from all the plugging unplugging plus the chance to short stuff out if I make an error but I have a great procedure that prevents that similar to the one hand rule. One batter lead in one hand, one charger lead in the other, never more. Pretty hard to frock it up that way.

 

[GaryJS]

Thanks for the support guys...

The caps were 25V 470uF but it's blown a diode and another component that doesn't have any readable marks.. It's an 8 pin surface mount chip - possibly an opto couple or a switch mode controller.. I agree that caps don't blow so violently normally.. 3 out of 4 parallel caps have gone the same way, the forth seems fine... It would need either a very large over voltage or reverse polarity.. Strange that I've used it once without problems though - mind you.. the second time I tried using it, my HK PSU blew up so it might have done some damage to the circuit..

I'm using a HP server PSU rated at 32amps so I should have plenty in the bag for this application and I've read good things about them.... Better than PC power supplies.

Still debating on which charger to get.. I've found a 240W quad 6s charger for £120 delivered from a UK store.. Might go with that...

http://www.4-max.co.uk/gt-x-drive6-charger.htm

 

[GaryJS]

Thanks for the support guys...

The caps were 25V 470uF but it's blown a diode and another component that doesn't have any readable marks.. It's an 8 pin surface mount chip - possibly an opto couple or a switch mode controller.. I agree that caps don't blow so violently normally.. 3 out of 4 parallel caps have gone the same way, the forth seems fine... It would need either a very large over voltage or reverse polarity.. Strange that I've used it once without problems though - mind you.. the second time I tried using it, my HK PSU blew up so it might have done some damage to the circuit..

I'm using a HP server PSU rated at 32amps so I should have plenty in the bag for this application and I've read good things about them.... Better than PC power supplies.

Still debating on which charger to get.. I've found a 240W quad 6s charger for £120 delivered from a UK store.. Might go with that...

http://www.4-max.co.uk/gt-x-drive6-charger.htm

 

[sn0wchyld]

Thanks for the support guys...

The caps were 25V 470uF but it's blown a diode and another component that doesn't have any readable marks.. It's an 8 pin surface mount chip - possibly an opto couple or a switch mode controller.. I agree that caps don't blow so violently normally.. 3 out of 4 parallel caps have gone the same way, the forth seems fine... It would need either a very large over voltage or reverse polarity.. Strange that I've used it once without problems though - mind you.. the second time I tried using it, my HK PSU blew up so it might have done some damage to the circuit..

I'm using a HP server PSU rated at 32amps so I should have plenty in the bag for this application and I've read good things about them.... Better than PC power supplies.

Still debating on which charger to get.. I've found a 240W quad 6s charger for £120 delivered from a UK store.. Might go with that...

http://www.4-max.co.uk/gt-x-drive6-charger.htm

120 pounds for a 240w charger seems a bit rich imo. My 1300w charger was ~240AUD delivered (from an AUS store, not china), witch is about what... 160 odd pounds? Id check locally for a celpro powerlab 8 or their 10s charger (10xp I think). the 10s charger is 600w from memory, and would probably be close to the same price as that 240w one your looking at.

And I cant recommend celpro's enough. They really are nicely built units, with more features than I care to learn. some great safety features too, like sensing that my balance wires were too long and thin to handle the 1A balancing charge, so it sounded an alarm, gave me an error message (that allowed me to figure this out) and halted the charge. Ive since lowered it to 600ma and its doin fine! (though I should really fix my wireing :? )

 

[Spacey]

Guys....paying £120 for a poxy 120watt charger for Lipo in Uk is crazy. I have to charge 17Ah of 66V Lipo and I got fed up very quickly of using a normal RC Charger.

So I bought a standard KP charger, you can get the 600W ones for $73 plus deliver from most places like http://www.bmsbattery.com/alloy-shell/27-alloy-shell-600w-lifepo4li-ionlead-acid-battery-ebike-charger.html

Just get them to adjust it so that it charges to you packs total i.e Cells x 4.15v and bulk charge it. The .5V headroom will stop any sneaky overcharging of cells and give you longer life of the lipo. Then I use a stand alone balancer that once a week I just leave on the series'd cells i.e 8 cell connector and just let it balance.

Or just use your normal low power RC charger to balance charge to 4.15v a cell every week or so. Bulk charging is so much quicker and a lot cheaper and dare I say it more reliable.